Author: Siqi Guan, a BA Filmmaking student, interested in Directing.

Rosetta is a 1999 film made by the Dardenne brothers. This film won the Palme d'Or and Best Actress at the 52nd Cannes Film Festival. The films of Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne have always continued their labelled author style, with a realism inclination combined with a minimalist narrative, expressing the exploration and thinking of human nature and society. Rosetta is a representative work that embodies this author's style. It mainly tells the story of an unemployed girl running around to find a job and lead a normal life like everyone else, even betraying her only friend, so that she collapsed under heavy pressure, and was finally redeemed. In the film, the Dardenne brothers continued their attention to the marginal and low-level characters, as well as thinking about social issues, a large number of long shots, close-fitting shots, and a narrative approach that focused on the characters from a single perspective, showing a kind of the narrative characteristics of minimalism.

This blog will have a detailed analysis of one long shot from 06:52 to 08:07 of Rosetta. This 80-second long shot is a perfect long shot in an 8 square space, with 15 dialogues, three props, and two actors to show the mother-daughter argument and mother-daughter relationship, but in this segment of the blocking and character movement are very complicated, so I plan to divide this segment into three themes: Rosetta’s opinion, Argues between Rosetta and her mother, Mother leaves. And then analyze them separately under different themes.

First, Rosetta’s opinion. This part lasted for 12 seconds. Rosetta walks around, pours water, talks to her mother, and receives water. She first looks at her right position and walks ten steps. The camera kept close-up of her face, creating expectations for what she is observing and what she is about to say. Then Rosetta pours water, looks to the right side of her body, and gets up. The camera moves with her movements and directions. While not missing the close-up of the character's face, it also increases the sense of anticipation for the next character in the clip. She rushes to the right to speak her opinion, concisely and powerfully. At this time, the camera does not continue to move with Rosetta. On the axis formed by Rosetta and her mother, it is clear that the object Rosetta has been looking at is her mother. Secondly, it is also to jump the axis. The lens is from Rosetta’s face and then switches to her back. Blocking in this way will increases changes and reduces the visual fatigue of the audience, which is an excellent blocking. 

Second, the argues between Rosetta and her mother. Rosetta cleans the basin, pours water, and finds the lid of the wine bottle, and goes to face her mother. After the first themed clip, the axis was re-established between the mother and daughter actors. The camera position does not change. The camera continues to shoot Rosetta. She cleans the basin and faces the camera, which exposes a bruise on her shoulder, this detail shows Rosetta's independence and strength, because she does not seek her mother's comfort because of her injury. Then, how to express the dispute between the mother and daughter? First, the director dispatches the mother to picks up the flower and grass props outside the camera. The mother is getting up with the props when she is in the image, and then the mother walks and squats down, turning from the right to the left of the screen. On the side, Rosetta's direction also changes during the dialogue. Doing this movement can not only increase the dynamics of the long-shot picture and enhance the perception of the audience, but also add emotion to the mother's role and dialogues. Before the dialogue between the two take place, Rosetta finds the lid of the wine bottle and changes the prop to the other hand. This action design makes her middle shot more beautiful when she confronts her mother, otherwise it would cause Rosetta looks as a strange look with only one arm.

Third, mother leaves. The mother gets up, yells to Rosetta, threw away the props, and turns to leave. Rosetta follows closely, the mother washes her hands, Rosetta points out that it is her water basin, the mother shakes the water on her daughter and walks straight away, Rosetta cleans her basin for the third time. The mother’s shouting and throwing away the props are both to increase the mood of being offended, and the overall film is more to show the strength of Rosetta, which can be seen from the blocking when the camera is panning. When the mother leaves, the camera moves with her. After the mother leaves the frame, the camera shakes back slightly. This is waiting for Rosetta walks in the frame, and then to show her determination and strength in the process of pouring water.

In conclusion, the film Rosetta expresses the hardships and struggles of a young girl who lives at the bottom of the society in a documentary-like shooting technique. This film also has its valuable social significance: after the film was released, it caused a huge response, and the Belgian government promulgated the "Rosetta Plan" aimed at protecting the rights and interests of young people (Wang, 2015). 

There are many things worth thinking about in the film of the Dardenne brothers, and every place is a treasure, in addition to the 80-second segment analyzed above, there are more exciting places worthy of our analysis and discussion.

Reference List:

Wang, J. (2015). Workshop Films in the Post-Industrial Age - The Imagery World of the Darnay Brothers. The Art of Film, (5), 119-129.